Welcome back!
It has been a while since I made my last post. As I have mentioned previously, I have my own personal issues that are on-going and that sometimes those issues can bring me to my knees. This time wasn't an absolute drop to the bottom of the swamp, but it was bad enough to de-motivate me and make even the easiest of tasks appear like a huge monster that I must defeat.
So because of all that and the fact that it seemed to be lingering way longer than I'd have liked it to, I felt somewhat stuck at a dead end. Normally I may take a bit of a dip which is expected sometimes and usually within a week or two I'm back on my feet and firing on all four engines, however this time the spell just didn't want to go away. It still hasn't.
Over the last few weeks I have had the subject of 'setting intentions' cross my path a few times. I like to see this as a sign. Every now and then another article or video I came across would be talking about intentions and about how they can be a bit of a lifeline to grab onto when you don't seem to have the ammunition to carry on the fight, so to speak. So as usual I've done a little research and now I have ran out of excuses not to do something. Not that I had any real excuses in the first place, but my mind did what it loves to do, which is to try and choose the easy but less beneficial path. It has been successful to date, but now here I sit typing this sentence with the intention of moving things forward.
Why does this work? My research indicates that when we set an intention, we are bringing the thing we want the most right to the forefront of the mind. We are making the goal (or the intention) the main reason for engaging in whatever event we are doing.
For example, you may usually come home from work feeling really tired and emotionally exhausted. Your child is always eager to show you the homework or artwork or something similar, but your attention is always drifting off into distractions like the TV or the texts coming through, or maybe even someone else in the house is also demanding that precious attention. This is then bothering you because you feel guilty for not giving your child the attention he or she needs.
So what you may do is set an intention. You decide that you will dedicate ten minutes at least to catch up with your child when you walk through the door. No distractions will be allowed. Your full attention is required. You write down exactly what you intend to do with that time on a piece of paper and place it in your pocket. Now you have made a promise to yourself and secretly to your child too. Hopefully it will be far more difficult to break that promise.
Now as you pull into the driveway your mind remembers the promise, the intention and brings it to the forefront of your mind. You may take out the bit of paper and re-read it again. Now you get out of the car and actually carry out your pre-set intention. It's one of the best chances you can give yourself to achieve those many little things that when added up contribute fully to you not achieving anything.
In my own current experience, I am struggling with waking up early enough to get my exercise routine done by a specific time. I am also snacking way too much on the chocolate treats at night before I go to bed (I actually take a little stash to bed with me too). That is basically ruining any cardiovascular work that I wish to do in the morning.
I have found that somewhere in my very distance past I picked up a habit of running through all the horrible and negative things in my life before I have even got out of bed. It's very quick but it happens. This means I'm starting every day from a place of fear and insecurity. No wonder I find it hard to wake up. It's understandable but not essential and it's certainly not helpful.
We are all familiar with the idea of making a goal and then acting in such a way that promotes the achievement of that goal, but we may never even cast a thought to the millions of micro-decisions that must be made between starting the goal and actually achieving it. All those little decisions can help us slide backwards without actually ever really realising it. We may notice that the goal is not gong to be achieved and we won't even know the reasons why. For me, it's all the little decisions.
Your mission is, should you choose to accept it, identify what you wish to achieve and simply write down your intention. Bring that intention right to the front of your mind before you engage in the action or event. Then just go and do it.
A good example is when you may have to spend time with someone that annoys you. They may intentionally do it or they may not, but either way it is you who is suffering. So your intention may be that you're going recognise that words are merely sounds and you are going to smile. You are intending that the whole experience will be like water running off a ducks back. You are intending to make it easy for you. You are intending to make it even funny. This may be a very powerful tool to have in your tool box.
I wish this to be at least a two-part post. As I have said, I 'intend' to write down my intentions and act upon them. I will give it a go and report back to you shortly. I will share not just whether or not it made achieving goals easier and also how I felt about it. I definitely need to change the game because at the moment I seem to be losing. I will see you on the other side!
I thank you for reading this post. Let me know if you decide to do the same or have had success in the past with this strategy. There is a video too, so please check it out. I will be back with another post very soon.
Always your Wing-Man,
Paul Jackson